Thursday, September 26, 2019

A DESIGN FOR A META SLENDRO MALLET INSTRUMENT ALSO CAPABLE OF SWEEPING CHORDS

It has been desirable to be able to play chords on a mallet instrument in a fashion similar to what can be done on Harry Partch's Diamond Marimba and Quadrangularis Reversum where one can scrape a mallet downward as in the former or upward in the latter to arpeggiate a full harmonic or subharmonic hexad.

What is presented here preserves this spirit of being able to scape triads that mimics the 6-7-8 harmonic triads and it inversion . This scale which can find within Wilson's Meru scales found here http://anaphoria.com/wilsonmeru.html.
It can do so in multiple octaves and while preserving the conventional low to high arrangement of tones. The layout coincides with Wilson's 3/5 keyboard which is constructed from his gral keyboard guide found here http://anaphoria.com/wilsonkeyboard.html.

This scale forms also a 17, 22, 27, 32 and 37 tone scale where it fills in the gaps as close as one can get to an equal system. This same arrangement can still be used by adding each new set of five tones placing them below each of the ranks of bars. One could also apply this to a tempered version where the bottom set of pitches were duplicated at the top in the appropriate place making an instrument where each triad and its inversion could be easily played.

This post has been edited to replace this image below. The layout above has been chosen over this one since in the 17 tone version which i am making it places the added tones up above and the more common notes down below. Since i am using xylophone bars it is quite easy to make the bars sound so finding it easy to arpeggiate either up or down. Also i am finding that pentatonic like arpeggios are quite nice sounding so extra happy with these lay outs.